Smart glasses aren’t just being used by juvenile pranksters and pickup artists to terrorize strangers, traumatize Meta’s data labeling subcontractors in Kenya, and covertly receive advice while being cross-examined in court.
As Rest of World reports, students in China are also using them to cheat during exams. One university student, identified as Vivian, told the publication that she uses her Rokid AI glasses to scan questions and display answers on the integrated screen. (Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses with a built-in screen are currently only available in the US, but alternatives are available worldwide.)
Vivian also took the idea in an entrepreneurial direction, renting out her spectacles to other schoolmates to turn her investment into a lucrative side hustle.
Thanks to the advent of AI, the smart glasses industry has gained a considerable boost, allowing owners to take pictures, record videos, analyze the world around them, translate road signs, get directions, or read from a script during presentations.
But thanks to their steep price, consumers in China are turning to secondhand marketplaces like Xianyu to rent a pair instead, according to Rest of World. Prices range from the equivalent of $6 to $12 a day, depending on the model.
The gizmos are proving particularly useful for cheating students. With a small controller in the shape of a ring, students can covertly use them to answer English and math questions, as Shenzhen-based businessman Ke Changsi, who rents out Rokid and Quark smart glasses, told the publication.
But the country’s secondary education program has started to catch on, explicitly banning the devices from national college entrance and civil service exams. Many teachers, however, aren’t tuned into the trend — at least for now. After all, the current offerings from the likes of Rokid and Meta bear a striking visual resemblance to their unenhanced equivalents.
Outside of cheating on exams, the tech is still far from perfect. The devices still weigh considerably more than a pair of conventional glasses or sunglasses. They also have to be charged frequently thanks to smaller-than-ideal batteries.
But that doesn’t mean they excel at giving cheaters an unfair advantage at school. In an experiment earlier this year, researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology added OpenAI’s powerful GPT-5.2 large language model to a pair of Rokid glasses and asked a student to wear them during a “stressful final exam week” in a class of over 100 students.
The student “achieved an astonishing score of 92.5” in their final undergraduate computer communication networks class, placing them “among the top five” in the class.
More on smart glasses: Man Caught Using Smart Glasses to Get Advice While Being Cross-Examined in Court
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